Chapter 1: Part 10, Starting to Rain

Hans had been waiting in his office for two hours, why did they have me come in at 10:30 at night just to make me wait? He thought of the horror movie marathon that he had been watching earlier at his home in Acton. Well it's not like I was doing anything great anyways. Sitting at his desk his thumb worried the leather edge of his desk set. He scanned beyond the border of where the dark green leather mat met with the deep cherry of the lacquered wood beneath it. He continued to follow the grain of the wood and stopped at a single picture of Dora that sat alone on the far left corner of his desk. Like a snapshot of time it brought him back to the day they were married. Her face radiated purity and a calming innocence that would always soothe him just as it did now. He booted up his computer and tried to log in to the network. Each time he tried the prompt would return the message "Invalid User: See system administrator".

His phone rang and he looked to see who it was on his VOIP display. He wondered why Eric was calling so late as he picked up the receiver. "Hello Eric, this is Hans."

"Hans. Sorry to bother you this late, I hope I didn't wake you." Eric's usually light tone had a sense of urgency to it as he spoke. "I was calling to see if you knew what was going on at the labs tonight?"

"I am actually at the office right now, I've forwarded my calls. Raimi Walters phoned me this evening and wanted me to come in. He wouldn't say what it was about, only that it was important." Hans' hand lightly stroked his thick grey beard. "Why do you ask? Have you heard anything?"

"Raimi called me about an hour ago and said the same thing but wouldn't go into any detail. Listen, I'll be there in about five minutes. Meet me in the atrium, O.K." Eric didn't wait for any acknowledgement before he hung up the cell.

Hans sat there for a minute after the line went dead and pondered this new event. Why would Raimi want both Eric and he to come in at this unGodly hour. Hans didn't like the way things were going tonight. For far too long he had felt left out of the loop. Even Eric had stopped reporting his findings directly to him, and he needed to know things like viral titers and plaque assays as soon as they had the data. It was the main reason why Hans had the (A.D.A.S.) system or automatic data acquisition servers installed in the labs. With the new system he had regained a little of the control he once had. At this moment though, Hans cursed all computers as he tried to login one last time.

Eric greeted Hans with a cup of Dunkin Doughnuts coffee as the elevator doors opened. "Ahh I see you have become a mind reader too, thanks!" Hans took the cup and sipped the liquid "Two creams no sugar, just the way I like it. Thanks, where's yours?"

Eric lied so as not to seem like a kiss up. "I finished mine on the way." He quickly changed the subject. "So, any word from Raimi?" Hans nodded a no and started to walk back towards the elevator when an armed security officer stepped out of the back office and waved for them to come over.

Hans looked to Eric questioningly as they started to walk to the security office. "Since when do the guards here carry guns?" Hans asked under his breath.

Unexpectedly the guard piped up in a gruff tone "Since the break in on Friday Mr. Delholme." Hans noticed that the guard's uniform was no longer a suit and tie but more of a swat style uniform. The officer's form was swathed completely in black. A tight ribbed sweater flowed into a cargo style pant that ended in tightly laced boots. It had more of a casual commando feel to it then the typical swat uniform. Hans didn't recognize the officer either, he drew a blank when he looked upon the hardened features of his face. "I am Sergeant Ridgeman. The Viron business advisory committee has asked my team handle this investigation."

"V.B.A.C.? Why are they involved?" Eric asked disquieted by the parent corporations involvement. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "A break-in should be handled by the local authorities, shouldn't it?" Eric asked as he regained his composure.

"You are correct Mr. Larsen." A disembodied voice from behind stated wryly. The voice carried an undefined accent that stressed the S in Eric's name making it sound like La'ssoon. A tall shadow took shape from out of a darkened corner. It was Raimi and he had been there the entire time. "But allowing the police to be involved would invite too much curiosity into our research. And we don't want that, now do we Eric?" Eric's demeanor suddenly became sheepish and timid with the insinuation that Raimi's statement implied.

Picking up on this Hans rapidly felt anger rise to the surface "Listen I have had enough of feeling like I've been left out of the joke! I want to know right now what the hell is going on here, and why you have asked me to come here at this hour."

"I assure you Dr. Delholme, this is no joke. As you shall soon see." The last half of Raimi's statement came out in a blur of syllables. "Sergeant Ridgeman, why don't you accompany us to level 3. On the way you can inform us as to what your team has found." Eric and Hans exchanged disquieting glances as Sergeant Ridgeman stood at attention and moved towards the three of them.

All the carefully laid plains seemed do evaporate into thin air with these new circumstances. Although Eric hadn't planned for this to happen he was a master of making things work for him. His mind worked on all the possible permutations of what could happen and his possible plans of action. He felt better as his options opened up. Besides he still had a few cards up his sleeve, or tucked under his shirt he thought as cold steel touched the skin of his back.

As they headed toward the labs on level three though, Eric could not seem to forget Raimi's final statement. It loomed over them like a dark storm cloud. He just hoped that it didn't decide to rain on his parade.











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